This video clip is 3 minutes and 19 MB in size so will take some time to download. It is of a Rapids subsistence fishwheel during one of the heaviest part of the record 2005 fall chum run on the Yukon.

A test fishwheel right below this wheel was running 24/7 using a video camera and it was doing about 4,000 per 24 during this part of the run. Rough estimated passage through the rapids on this day was about 90,000. During periods of abundance like this both nets and wheels are commonly run for very short times or even once every few days. An interesting note also is the fact that the parent year to this returning run was extremely poor and viewed as a disaster by management and fishers. This goes to show there is more to salmon population projections than we know.

(best to start download by - right click on video picture and select save target as)